The architect has softened the podium design in response to community concerns about its impact - scaling it back, making it a "green wall" on that side, and creating a landscaping strip along the top of the podium deep enough to plant trees on.

But for owners and residents there is no getting past the loss of sky, sun and air that the height and bulk of the building will necessitate.

Planning guidelines for the area state building heights should be maximum 41 metres, with podium heights 8-13.5 metres. But developers can apply for height bonuses, as in this case.

Artist's impression. Photo: Hillam Architects.

Guidelines also state zero-setbacks are only allowed if there are no adverse impacts on neighbours, in which a four-metre setback should theoretically apply.

To justify the height and scale bonuses the Perth architect, Hillam Architects, has worked with the City of South Perth's independent Design Review Panel and says the panel has endorsed this design as being of 'exemplary quality'.

The rezoning of the area as high-density was originally done to provide population growth to justify a local train station - but no train station is included in current state public transport planning.

The design includes a six-level above-ground car park projected to generate more than 1300 extra car movements on Bowman Street per day as cars travel to and from Kwinana Freeway via Labouchere Road.

Mr Paskos bought his flat nearly 30 years ago thinking South Perth would be a suburb in which residents would cycle or catch public transport to the city.

He said the flats were only currently worth around $300,000 even with views intact.

The flats, seen from Bowman Street on the south side. Photo: Google

"I thought a developer would come and buy me out, instead of destroying my property and my dreams," he said.

"We knew development would be big, but we didn't think it would be ridiculously big.

"If something goes wrong property values-wise, I can handle the hit - but most of the other owners can't."

He described the official processes involved in challenging the development as "daunting and disheartening".

The rezoning was also intended to provide more commercial activity in the area to avoid it becoming a dormitory suburb.

The architect states there will be a net gain in commercial space over the office currently occupying the site, with the design including a cafe, convenience store and doctor's office. But this is also when 20 serviced apartments on levels one to five are defined as commercial space ??? a definition that has proved controversial in the past.

It also designed two other towers proposed for South Perth: Lumiere, currently subject to a second Supreme Court appeal launched by South Perth residents, and the 43-story Lyall St tower very close to the proposed Sky Residences.

The firm has recently written that as it continues to "progress into high density multi-residential projects" it worked with a "facade engineer" to develop the faceted grid design of Sky Residences.

"We have been fortunate enough to be working closely with our client, NewLeaf Homes, who agreed to engage a facade engineer in the early stages of the project, understanding the risk of getting such a major component of the design wrong," a recent blog post said.

The design up close. Photo: Hillam Architects

Hillam director Mandy Leung said the Singaporean developer had not built in Perth before, but that it had extensive experience delivering high quality multi-residential and mixed-use projects in Singapore.

NewLeaf's managers were willing to work with the community to achieve a high standard in Perth, she said, and this was evidenced by its softening of the podium design.

Ms Leung said the overshadowed living areas still got sunlight from 12pm to 1pm when the sun was directly overhead.

She emphasised design aspects such as the continuous pedestrian awning complementing the cafe area, and generous public plaza with landscaping, water features and seating, as well as a community meeting room and function space within the building.